Bulletin of the California Lichen Society Volume 11 No.1 Summer 2004 The California Lichen Society seeks to promote the appreciation, conservation and study of the lichens. The interests of the Society include the entire western part of the continent, although the focus is on California. Dues categories (in $US per year): Student and fi xed income - $10, Regular - $18 ($20 for foreign members), Family - $25, Sponsor and Libraries - $35, Donor - $50, Benefactor - $100 and Life Membership - $500 (one time) payable to the California Lichen Society, P.O. Box 472, Fairfax, CA 94930. Members receive the Bulletin and notices of meetings, fi eld trips, lectures and workshops. Board Members of the California Lichen Society: President: Bill Hill, P.O. Box 472, Fairfax, CA 94930, email: <[email protected]> Vice President: Boyd Poulsen Secretary: Sara Blauman Treasurer: Kathy Faircloth Editor: Tom Carlberg Committees of the California Lichen Society: Data Base: Charis Bratt, chairperson Conservation: Eric Peterson, chairperson Education/Outreach: Lori Hubbart, chairperson Poster/Mini Guides: Janet Doell, chairperson The Bulletin of the California Lichen Society (ISSN 1093-9148) is edited by Tom Carlberg, <[email protected]>. The Bulletin has a review committee including Larry St. Clair, Shirley Tucker, William Sanders and Richard Moe, and is produced by Richard Doell. The Bulletin welcomes manuscripts on technical topics in lichenology relating to western North America and on conservation of the lichens, as well as news of lichenologists and their ac- tivities. The best way to submit manuscripts is by e-mail attachments or on 1.44 Mb diskette or a CD in Word Perfect or Microsoft Word formats. Submit a fi le without paragraph format- ting. Figures may be submitted as line drawings, unmounted black and white glossy photos or 35mm negatives or slides (B&W or color). Contact the Production Editor, Richard Doell, at <[email protected]> for e-mail requirements in submitting illustrations electronically. A review process is followed. Nomenclature follows Esslinger and Egan’s 7th Checklist on-line at <http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/esslinge/chcklst/chcklst7.html>. The editors may substitute abbreviations of author’s names, as appropriate, from R.K. Brummitt and C.E. Powell, Authors of Plant Names, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1992. Style follows this is- sue. Reprints may be ordered and will be provided at a charge equal to the Society’s cost. The Bulletin has a World Wide Web site at <http://ucjeps.herb.berkeley.edu/rlmoe/cals.html> and meets at the group website <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CaliforniaLichens>. Volume 11(1) of the Bulletin was issued June 11, 2004. Front cover: Solorina spongiosa (Sm.) Anzi. Photo curtesy of Steve Sharnoff. Bulletin of the California Lichen Society Volume 11 No.1 Summer 2004 Solorina spongiosa: A new species record for Nevada Cheryl Beyera and Larry St. Clairb aForest Botanist, Modoc National Forest, Alturas, California 96101 Email: <[email protected]> bCurator of Nonvascular Cryptogams, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602 Email: <[email protected]> Abstract: Solorina spongiosa (“fringed chocolate chip lichen”) is reported new to Nevada from the Spring Mountains where it grows over and among several species of mosses at elevations above 2900 m. Solorina is a small genus of fi ve species within the Peltigeraceae. All but one species occur on moist calcareous soil in cold regions. Solorina spongiosa (Sm.) Anzi, with the most reduced thallus of the group, is a bipolar arctic-alpine species, reported from Europe, North America, South Island (New Zealand), and James Ross Island (Antarctica), but seldom collected. The map for Solorina spongiosa in Lichens of North America (Brodo et al. 2001) indicates that this lichen, within U.S. borders, is confi ned to Alaska, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico. Manierre (1999) notes that it is rare wherever it Figure 1. Solorina spongiosa collected in the Spring appears and Geiser et al. (1994) lists it as rare in Mountains, Nevada. Urceolate apothecia are surrounded western North America. Finding crustose lichens in by a ring of tissue containing a green alga, and imbedded southern Nevada is expected, but the discovery of in squamules containing the cyanobacterium, Nostoc. Solorina spongiosa was a surprise to most (Bungartz, Photo by Bill Hill. pers. comm.; McCune, pers. comm.; Rosentreter, pers. comm.). However, St.Clair (1999) lists it coralloid, spongiose lichen. The apparent thallus, as “Common…in upper montane throughout which is appressed to the soil or moss substrate, northern Rocky Mountains south into Colorado forms a dark, warted to coralloid mass, gelatinous Rockies.” In this paper it is reported as new to when wet. It is composed of cephalodia containing Nevada. the cyanobacterium, Nostoc. The true thallus contains a green alga and is reduced to a thin ring Solorina spongiosa is a rarely collected, brown, or collar surrounding a large urceolate apothecium grayish, or greenish squamulose, granulose to (Figure 1). Its paraplectenchymatous upper cortex 1 Bulletin of the California Lichen Society 11(1), 2004 contains Coccomyxa in the algal layer. Brodo et al. Geologically, the range is made up of many (2001) consider the green alga to be the primary sedimentary layers of limestone, dolomite, photobiont for the genus. The underside lacks a sandstone, shale, and gypsum deposited by a cortex. The apothecia and squamules are attached shallow sea that covered the region 590 to 250 to the substratum by rhizines. The apothecia are million years ago (mya), during the Paleozoic era. sunken in the upper surface of the thallus lobes, The mountains themselves were formed about 60 the disk is dark brownish red to blackening. mya, close to the end of the Cretaceous Period, Dobson (2000) describes the apothecia as up to 5 when east-west pressure caused the sedimentary mm in diameter. The hymenium is hyaline, and layers to buckle and shear. During the Pleistocene the paraphyses are unbranched with the tips red- – 1.6 million to 12,000 ya – southern Nevada was brown, coherent, and little thickened. Ascospores much cooler and wetter than it is today. As the are brown, 1-septate (Figure 2), 4/ascus, 30-50 x Pleistocene ended, the plants that had become 18-22 µm, with a established in the Spring Mountains became warted, furrowed isolated (Mohlenbrock 1992). surface. Solorina spongiosa occurs over Charlet (2001) notes it as the most biologically mosses in subalpine diverse of all mountain ranges in Nevada, with and alpine calcareous 37 tree species and 17 endemic plants. On the areas. An exception lower slopes, plants typical of the Great Basin is at Pictured Rocks such as sagebrush and creosote merge into the National Lakeshore, Mojave Desert fl ora where a variety of cacti and Alger County, other desert-dwelling plants live. Higher in the Michigan, where it range, pinyon pine and Utah juniper take over the Figure 2. Solorina spongiosa spores, has been reported, drier habitats while ponderosa pine and white fi r 40X, from collections at Three surprisingly, on dominate the more mesic canyons. Bristlecone pine Springs, Spring Mountains, NV. sandstone (Manierre range from as low as 2103 m to tree line at 3048 to Photo by C. Beyer. 1999). Lichens are 3353 m. At the higher elevations, limber pine joins hosts to many, often bristlecone pine. Charlet (2001) notes that there specialized host-specifi c fungal parasites. A lichen are probably more than 1000 plant species in the parasite is often found on Solorina spongiosa (F. Spring Mountains, representing about one-third of Bungartz, pers. comm.). The above description is the entire Nevada fl ora. An additional 8 species are a compilation from Jahns et al. (1995), Martinez endemic to southern Nevada and California and and Burgaz (1999), McCune (2002), McCune another 3 are endemic to southern Nevada and and Goward (1995), Nash (2002), Øvstedal and Utah. A high number of moonwort species of ferns Smith (2001), Thomson (1984) and Thomson and grow in limited habitat available within the Spring Thomson (1984). Mountains, including some of the same habitats where Solorina spongiosa is found. Several endemic Site Location and Description vascular species also occur in these mesic, upper The Spring Mountains are located in southern elevation sites. Nevada near the California border. Pahrump Valley and the Amargosa River basin lie to the west and The Spring Mountains are administered by two Las Vegas Valley, draining into the Colorado River, federal agencies: the Bureau of Land Management lies to the east (Charlet 2001). Las Vegas, with 1.5 (BLM) manages some lower elevation areas, million people, is 48 km to the southeast. The range including Red Rock Canyon National Conservation is a sedimentary escarpment 68 km long and up to Area; and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest 26 km wide, with elevations ranging from about 853 manages the higher elevations of the range. In m to the highest point on Mt. Charleston at 3633 m. August 1993, Congress established the Spring This ‘sky island’ is among the most isolated ranges Mountains National Recreation Area, administered in North America, its nearest neighbor being the by the U.S. Forest Service. Panamint Range of California, 161 kilometers away (Mohlenbrock 1992). 2 Solorina spongiosa in Nevada In July of 2002, Solorina spongiosa was collected in the Spring Mountains, Clark County, Nevada, at Three Springs (Figure 3) in upper Lee Canyon, above the Lee Canyon Ski and Summer Resort (Beyer 20020710.1 OSC). Specimens were found growing on a vertical limestone surface over moss between 2957 and 2987 m elevation (UTM 11, 618206E 4016990N), in open canopy. During spring runoff this microhabitat is very wet to saturated. Later in the summer and fall, the moss cover provides a moist environment. Small specimens were also found growing over moss on soil in the vicinity of the limestone boulder.